Roger Hardie is a cellular neuroscientist whose work on insect vision led to important discoveries about how photoreceptors detect and respond to light through mechanisms that are of relevance to human health. Roger was also the first scientist to show that histamine — a mediator of inflammation — is the neurotransmitter released by photoreceptors and that it directly activates ion channels on adjacent cells in the visual pathway.

In fruit flies, Roger identified the genes that encode transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels, through which calcium flows in response to light. This defined a major new ion channel family, now known to be widely distributed throughout the animal kingdom, including in humans, where they are a major focus of biomedical research.

Roger was awarded the 2012 Rank Prize in Optoelectronics for his outstanding contributions to the study of the physiology of insect vision.